


i just want some of your sun

by vargs



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Multi, Not quite soulmates but that was the closest identifying tag I could find, OT3, Past Peachshipping, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Prideshipping, Puzzleshipping, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, flareshipping, rivalshipping - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-01
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-05-16 20:39:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5840191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vargs/pseuds/vargs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yugi only notices it because Atem has taken to trying out new fashion options that feature wider, looser collars, accessorizing with scarves and jewelry. It's peeking out over the top of Atem's shirt from the back, right at the base of his neck.</p><p>The knowledge of it pools in his chest, burning where it gathers and stays, a secret that isn't his to keep but one he hoards as truly <em><strong>his</strong></em> for the time being. In a way that Yugi realizes, with a sinking feeling, he can never have now when it comes to Atem. (<em>If he says it aloud, if he tells Atem, if he...</em>) </p><p>He thinks it might tear a hole in his heart if he thinks about it too much. But Yugi supposes that's his own fault for falling for the wrong person and not doing anything about it.</p><p>(or: <em>A person's skin is the canvas for telling the journey of their life. No one said this journey could only be shared by one other significant person.</em>)</p>
            </blockquote>





	i just want some of your sun

**Author's Note:**

> This is for [Polyshipping Day](http://polyshippingday.tumblr.com/post/138390115013/what-is-polyshipping-day-a-monthly-24-hour) on Tumblr (1st of every month), celebrating OT3+ relationships and spreading the <83!
> 
> AU based on [this post](http://immuration.tumblr.com/post/134449720593/eryuko-spookymileskane-au-where-everyone-is). I also think that your own Mark changes over time, because the love you have for yourself is just as important as the love you have for other people. 
> 
> For the purposes of this AU, the appearance of someone else's Mark on your body means you feel romantic and/or sexual love and attraction for them. I like platonic and q*-platonic and other kinds of love, but it would have made this too complicated to tackle.

When Yugi first discovered his Mark, appearing innocuously on his right hip, he'd been a little disappointed. He'd known kids at school who had gotten their Marks earlier and had showed them off in the locker room before gym class. The popular, social classmates had big, colorful Marks, displayed proudly on their forearms, maybe trailing down a leg, or perched on a shoulder like a badge. Some were words, inspiring names and epithets to fit the person they adorn. Some were more artistic, based on something that is important to them, something they were passionate about.

Anzu's is a beautiful ribbon that encircles her wrist and loosely twines the length of her arm, graceful and delicate. It looks beautiful when she's wearing her dance outfit, a burst of peach-pink color standing out against the black of her gown.

( _He loves watching her dance. When her Mark had shown up on him, a smaller—shy and quiet—peach band around his left upper-arm, it wasn't unexpected. He hides it under the long sleeves of his school uniform and is glad that it had appeared high enough that the short sleeves of their summer uniform cover it._ )

But Yugi's Mark. It's a motley of strange shades, as if it can't decide what color it wants to be. Small and misshapen, such that it is impossible to tell what exactly it would become.

( _Although he hopes that one day his feelings might be returned, he also hopes that his Mark would never appear on Anzu's beautiful body._ )

——

But after he meets his Other Self, things change.

Lo and behold, Yugi's Mark grows, blooming on his skin like a flower. The scheme seems to be always shifting, a brilliant pattern of colors that remind Yugi of the decorative puzzle boxes that the Game Shop sometimes stocked.

And its shape. It makes a lot of sense in hindsight. Hadn't Grandpa always said that he had to consider the entire puzzle, not just each individual piece, or else he'd never solve it?

His Mark had blossomed into a myriad of complex geometric shapes. Yugi had no clue where the edges would end, but it was easier to see now that there _is_ something compelling about his own Mark. It's hard to pinpoint an exact description for it and it has already shifted through various shapes and sizes, for all the world like a transforming puzzle that never seemed to want to be solved. 

But that is the amazing part. Personal Marks can certainly change over time, but Yugi's changes so often that it's become part of his routine to check it every day to see whether he can guess what kind of shape it is shifting into next.  
So maybe his puzzle Mark will never be complete, but that's all right. 

——

The Spirit of the Puzzle has no Mark to speak of. Perhaps once upon a time, he had, but it had been lost to the darkness of time just like his name and his memories.

His time had ended a long time ago, he had said with a wry smile, so of course there was no need for one. He is but a ghost.

Yugi can tell it bothers him, but what is there to be done? There is almost nothing in this world that belongs to his Other Self anymore, not even the name and body Yugi graciously shares with him.

So despite their fervent wish to always remain together, Yugi knows that he has to move forward. They have to move forward. 

Because it's all right to be incomplete so long as there is always another block being laid on the foundation, progression in their forward-moving lives.

Even if Yugi might never know what kind of Mark his Other Self had once had.

——

Things work out in curious ways.

——

A few years later, after their adventures had been completed and two souls once bound together in one body returned to each other—this time each with their own bodies, their own names—his Other Self ( _Atem, Atem, there is a name to call him by now_ ) wakes him up one morning, barely able to contain his excitement. It's rare to see so much emotion in his normally rather stoic partner, but once Yugi rubs the sleep out of his eyes, he immediately sees why this is a special occasion.

Atem's Mark is a falcon, like one of the hieroglyphs in his name, majestic and outlined in kohl-blacks and glittering-golds. The bird rides on one toned deltoid, emblazoned in magnificent colors, one wing spread just enough to show off the reds and yellows, greens and blues.

Of course Atem's Mark appears at once in all its glory, not at all like Yugi's had.

When they meet up with their friends later that day, Atem proudly shows it off.

Jounouchi insists his is cooler, but they're all happy for him. ( _Jou's is a black dragon, curled up on his abdomen around his navel like a guardian. Very cool and very fitting._ )

Honda is the most mature out of all of them really, so there's no mocking commentary from him, only a grin and a simple congratulations.

Anzu... well, Anzu blushes, tries to hide it, and Yugi can guess why. She's back home in Japan visiting while on one of her breaks from school in America, and although the days are getting hotter, she's kept to wearing long pants and skirts with high socks or boots.

They call Otogi to tell him the news since he's out of town at the moment, doing business for his father's game company, now passed on to become his. Nobody's been in contact with Ryou for a week, but he would drift back to join their group again when he finishes whatever he's busy with. They send him a text and a picture.

The appearance of that falcon means several things. Most important of which is the fact that Atem is alive and present in this world of theirs.

Atem is here to stay.

——

( _Yugi now knows whose Mark has appeared across his chest._ )

——

( _Yugi eventually confesses to Anzu and they try, for several months, to make things work. Yugi's Mark does appear on her left shoulder blade, but it's a pale, transparent thing. And Atem's Mark is still stark on the side of her calf. She insists that it's faded from how it had been before, especially after Atem had politely rejected her, explaining that he thought of her as just a friend and that there was someone else who liked her._

_They break it off about ten months in. Anzu apologizes and cries, but Yugi is curiously unruffled about how things turned out. The fact that Anzu was in school in America for most of the year meant that they'd never gotten far enough in their relationship for her to ever see the growing Mark on his chest._

_They agree to remain good friends and Anzu's Mark on his arm remains as a sweet, faded memory. He'll still always like how it looks and he'll always love Anzu as his first friend and his first love._

_At least it doesn't end like so many other relationships do. He's glad of that._ )

——

Months turn into years.

Yugi had finally convinced Atem to get back into competing again more than a year ago, so they're both set to compete in the next tournament together where Yugi has plans to take back the title again from his partner. But Yugi is also thinking of going back to school.

Atem himself has been thinking of taking classes as well, though these days, his title as Duel King has him working under the Kaiba Corp label with Kaiba on a variety of projects that take up a lot of his time.

Although he still keeps mostly to their group of friends, evidently, the rivalry he'd had with Kaiba had not simply fizzled away during his stay in the afterlife.

The two had had an explosive reunion at Atem's debut onto the tournament stage. But afterward, they kept drawing back together like magnets, only to repel at the last second. It's a rocky friendship from what Yugi hears whenever he calls Mokuba to catch up, but it's probably one that Atem needs. As well as one that Kaiba, stand-offish and occupying a space leagues above where most people stayed, needs as well.

( _Yugi remembers, after all, that there had once existed a pharaoh and his priest. It's not the same, but it means something regardless._ )

( _Whatever meaning the two of them could create between them, in the aftermath of their adventures and the revelations they had come with, would be something special._ )

——

Yugi only notices it because Atem has taken to trying out new fashion options that feature wider, looser collars, accessorizing with scarves and jewelry. It's peeking out over the top of Atem's shirt from the back, right at the base of his neck.

It's not quite distinct yet, obviously still forming. But it's unmistakably clear what it is.

A white dragon, the head of which curves up toward Atem's neck, the rest of it continuing down his back out of sight.

Yugi wants to see the rest of it. He's not sure why. Atem probably doesn't even know it exists yet. Despite being the brilliant duelist and gamer that he is, he can be surprisingly oblivious.

The knowledge of it pools in his chest, burning where it gathers and stays, a secret that isn't his to keep but one he hoards as truly _**his**_ for the time being. In a way that Yugi realizes, with a sinking feeling, he can never have now when it comes to Atem. ( _If he says it aloud, if he tells Atem, if he..._ ) 

He thinks it might tear a hole in his heart if he thinks about it too much. But Yugi supposes that's his own fault for falling for the wrong person and not doing anything about it.

——

When the blue of the dragon's eyes become clearly noticeable, Yugi decides that he has stayed up one too many nights thinking about one too many selfish dreams and alternate universes, ones where Yugi does think to ask first, where Yugi is the lucky one that Atem chooses instead of...

It's time to bring it to his attention. For both their sakes.

Atem is surprised, a little sheepish that he hadn't noticed it first, and a little abashed that he had been found out. After trying unsuccessfully to get a good look at it in the mirror, he asks Yugi to take a picture of it so he can see.

Yugi swallows nervously as Atem lifts the back of his shirt up over his head so his back is bared, glad that he has his phone in his hands to focus on. There was a reason why he had offered to move out into his own room a while back and it wasn't just because they had felt that it was time for Atem to have his own space.

( _The dragon is beautiful. Its wings are spread downward and close to its body as if it were trying to fit itself into the space between Atem's shoulder blades. The long tail hasn't completely shown up yet, but Yugi could trace his finger down the line of Atem's spine where he can already tell that the tail will follow. The silver contrasts remarkably against his dark skin._ )

( _Yugi cuts off his train of thought right there._ )

Atem stares at it and contemplates for a long time. Long enough that Yugi speaks up just to break the awkward silence and ask what he plans to do now.

Part of Yugi wants to tell Atem right now. Show him the falcon ( _that has now extended a wing to cradle his heart, the heart that had belonged to someone else all along, his courage, his inspiration, his Other Se—_ ).

Ask him if it's too late.

And the other part of Yugi, the better part, thinks it's not fair of him to interfere. Atem can choose whomever he wants and Yugi has no right to make things more complicated.

"I think you should tell him," Yugi says, before he can say anything stupid and impulsive.

Atem looks almost grim.

"I can't," he says, and no amount of questioning, optimistic reasoning, or advice can get Atem to change his mind or explain why.

**Author's Note:**

> there's not enough love for flareshipping. i am here to remedy that. i also usually find these sorts of AUs very cheesy, but when inspiration just hits me in the face like a ton of bricks, what can i say.
> 
> (the reason why we don't see what the rest of the gang's Marks are besides Anzu and Jou is because this is all from Yugi's perspective. Anzu is his childhood friend and first love, and Jou is his best friend, so it makes sense. Honda is also his friend, but i think Honda is firstly Jou's friend, then Yugi's. besides, he comes across to me as a pretty private person. I have no clue what Ryou's and Otogi's Marks are.)


End file.
